Butlins-style comeback hints boy band might best be left in the past
JLS The O2 Arena, London SE10
‘We didn’t take our own advice with the JLS condoms, did we?” asks Marvin Humes towards the end of JLS’S reunion show at London’s O2 Arena. The boy band, now with nine children between them, had just performed a touching rendition of their 2012 single Proud in front of a video montage of the four London lads meeting each other’s wives and children.
“When we first saw that, we cried as well,” Humes tells the front row before a heartfelt speech, thanking their fans for all their support over the years. “You truly made our dreams come true.”
It was exactly the sort of emotional moment you would expect from this comeback tour. Unfortunately, it was the only time where the band, now all in their 30s, acted their age.
JLS were one of the most successful exports from The X Factor, coming second in the 2008 series after Alexandra Burke. But after four albums, millions of sales and several Brit awards, the group parted ways in 2013. There were attempts at solo careers from Oritsé Williams, JB Gill and Aston Merrygold, but nothing set the world alight. Instead, like most former pop stars from that period, a majority of JLS’S time post-breakup has been spent on television. Merrygold competed in The Masked Singer, Gill won a Strictly Come Dancing
Christmas special, while Humes presents BBC One’s very good game show The Hit List alongside his wife Rochelle.
Moments after Humes’s touching speech, Merrygold announced that the concert was over, said goodnight and turned to leave the stage. “Not!” he then declared, reviving one of the 2000s’ signature jokes.
Musically as well, JLS are a band out-of-time. Despite giving off major dad vibes, the group reprised their songs about falling in love with girls, having sex with girls and going to the club to meet girls. After thrusting against the microphone stand during one of these – Heal This Heartbreak
– Humes told the room “the hips aren’t the same as they used to be”.
There was no shortage of banter with the fans. And, on several occasions, the audience got to choose the next song. The harmonies were on point, renditions of tracks like Beat Again and Everybody In Love
reminded the room of JLS’S partystarting credentials, but the show really would have been better suited to somewhere like Butlins. Still, as one fan said on the train home, “it was like reliving our childhood”.
Next month, the band will release new album JLS might view this comeback tour as an updated edition of the group, but really it was more of the same from a band who are really starting to show their age. The show was a celebration of the past but also a reminder that some things are best left there.